Seven Stars brings an independent coffeeshop to Edina

The stay-at-home moms that opened Edina's newest coffeehouse don't live far from the shop at Amundson Avenue in Edina. That's a good thing, because they're making bagels from scratch every morning.

"It's our claim to fame so far," said co-owner Kimberly Barrett, who also works part-time as a professional photographer.

All of the food is kosher at Seven Stars.

Michelle Bruch

Barrett and co-owner Kathy Rendleman have a whopping seven children between them, hence the name Seven Stars Coffee House. The name also evokes a bit of religion, because the business is certified kosher.

The women initially worried that making a kosher bagel would be too daunting a task, and they considered ordering bagels from New York. But after their own bagel recipe underwent 20 iterations, it ended up being one of their biggest sellers.

Another big seller is the the cinnamon roll, made with special cinnamon and buttery cream frosting. The rolls nearly sold out in just two hours last Saturday. The recipe belonged to Rendleman's "Bubby"--a Yiddish term for her great-grandmother. The old recipe was a bit of a mystery, because it called for "handfuls" of flour and "pinches" of other ingredients.

"It took us a year to figure out what a handful was," Rendleman said -- apparently Bubby had big hands, and a handful measured out to fill more than a cup.

The coffee at Seven Stars comes from Roastery 7, an artisan roaster in Brooklyn Park that runs a completely carbon-neutral business. For every pound of coffee that's roasted and delivered, the company purchases carbon offsets that reforest clear-cut pasture land in Ecuador.

The coffee shop is located at 7015 Amundson Ave. in Edina.

Michelle Bruch

Seven Stars has environmental aspirations of its own.

"We're working toward having all the things we hand across the counter be 100 percent compostable," Barrett said.

Lunchtime fare includes fish and veggie sandwiches, all of it keeping kosher to fill what the women perceive to be an underserved kosher market.

"[Kathy] wanted to be able to fill that niche," said Barrett, who is not Jewish herself and became an expert on how to kasher a kitchen in the past three months.

All of Seven Star's candies and baked goods are made in-house. That includes espresso caramels, cheesecake brownies, blackberry scones and sugar cookie lollipops. But be careful--the ingredients that Rendleman uses to feed blueberry muffins to her entire household of six go into just two of the muffins at Seven Stars. The treats are decadent.